January 2005 Top Story Archives

»»Opportunity Makes Close-up Survey of its Heat Shield

[Saturday, January 01, 2005] Opportunity continues to survey the crash site of its heat shield and other associated hardware. In addition to using its navcam, pancam, and hazard cams, it has also used its microscopic imager.

[Sunday, January 02, 2005] With the help of MANY hours of work and planning there was a successful contact between
students at the Tulsa Air & Space Museum and the International Space
Station, as it sailed 250 miles above Tulsa on the morning of Wednesday
Dec 22nd, 2004.

[Monday, January 03, 2005] These pictures show the complete rover track from the lander to the Columbia Hills. Spirit's rover track shows up nicely from orbit, because the surfaces disrupted and churned by the wheels are darker than the surrounding, dust-coated plain.

[Monday, January 03, 2005] NASA lit a birthday candle today for its twin Mars Exploration Rovers, Spirit and Opportunity. The Spirit rover begins its second year on Mars investigating puzzling rocks unlike any found earlier.

[Tuesday, January 04, 2005] If all goes as planned, Deep Impact will become the first mission to slam into a comet, giving astronomers worldwide something far better than any other fireworks show on July 4, 2005.

»»Swift X-ray Telescope Sees Its First Light and Captures Its First Gamma-Ray-Burst Afterglow

[Wednesday, January 05, 2005] The Swift X-ray Telescope (XRT) has seen first light, capturing a dazzling image of Cassiopeia A, a well-known supernova remnant in the Milky Way galaxy, and also has discovered its first gamma-ray-burst afterglow.

[Wednesday, January 05, 2005] Astronomers have found the most powerful eruption in the universe. A super massive black hole generated this eruption by growing at a remarkable rate - and shows the appetite of large black holes, and the profound impact they have on their surroundings.

[Thursday, January 06, 2005] "The fundamental goal of this policy is to ensure the capability to access and use space in support of national and homeland security, civil, scientific, and economic interests. To achieve this goal, the United States Government shall: ..."

[Thursday, January 06, 2005] NASA marked a major milestone for the Space Shuttle's Return to Flight,
as the redesigned External Tank rolled out today from the barge that carried
it to the agency's Kennedy Space Center (KSC), Fla.

[Thursday, January 06, 2005] Culminating more than four years of processing data, NASA and the
National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) have completed Earth's
most extensive global topographic map.

[Friday, January 07, 2005] The path of Spirit through the rover's 354th martian day, or sol (Dec. 31, 2004), plus some future travel options, are indicated on this map of the "Husband Hill" region of the "Columbia Hills" within Mars' Gusev Crater.

[Friday, January 07, 2005] Images returned by NASA's Cassini spacecraft cameras during a New Year's Eve flyby of Saturn's moon Iapetus show startling surface features that are fueling heated scientific discussions about their origin.

[Friday, January 07, 2005] The Expedition 10 crew began the New Year by embarking on biomedical experiments, unloading contents from the recently arrived Russian Progress cargo vehicle and troubleshooting the Station's oxygen generator.

[Friday, January 07, 2005] Even as the Spirit and Opportunity rovers complete a year of successful operation on Mars, the next major step in Mars Exploration is taking shape with preparation of NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter for launch in just seven months.

[Saturday, January 08, 2005] Earth's climate is affected by how much sunlight is reflected and how much is absorbed. The regularity of the surface at Dome C allows researchers to measure precisely how much sunlight is reflecting off the snow at a given location and time.

[Sunday, January 09, 2005] Huygens will be the furthest object to touchdown on an alien world. The mission will provide information that may help us better understand Saturn's biggest moon, the only moon in the solar system with a thick atmosphere.

»»Workforce Challenges at Ames Research Center - and Elsewhere at NASA

[Sunday, January 09, 2005] NASA is once again facing budget pressures that are being translated into changes in its work force. NASA will be doing some new things, but it will also be reducing work in other areas.

[Monday, January 10, 2005] NASA scientists using data from the Indonesian earthquake calculated it
affected Earth's rotation, decreased the length of day, slightly changed the
planet's shape, and shifted the North Pole by centimeters.

[Monday, January 10, 2005] One discovery involves a black hole in our galaxy. Streams of gas that appear to be surfing on a wave of space as the gas falls toward the black hole. The other discovery involves a super massive black hole more than 170 million light years away.

[Monday, January 10, 2005] Astronomers say a dusty disc swirling around the nearby star Vega is bigger than earlier thought. It was probably caused by collisions of objects, perhaps as big as the planet Pluto, up to 2,000 kilometers (about 1,200 miles) in diameter.

»»Chandra Finds Evidence for Swarm of Black Holes Near the Galactic Center

[Monday, January 10, 2005] A swarm of 10,000 or more black holes may be orbiting the Milky Way's supermassive black hole, according to new results from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory. This may represent the highest concentration of black holes anywhere in the Galaxy.

»»heic0501: Hubble's infrared eyes home in on suspected extrasolar planet

[Monday, January 10, 2005] Follow up observations carried out with the Hubble Space Telescope are providing supporting evidence for the existence of a candidate planetary companion to a relatively bright young brown dwarf star located 225 LY away in the constellation Hydra.

»»Queen's University discovery sheds new light on ancient temperatures

[Monday, January 10, 2005] A new discovery by a team of Queen's University scientists suggests that ancient earth was much colder than previously thought - a discovery that has broad implications for those studying the earth's climate.

[Monday, January 10, 2005] Astronomers have discovered how ominous black holes can create life in the form of new stars, proving that jet-induced star formation may have played an important role in the formation of galaxies in the early universe.

[Monday, January 10, 2005] In a report published in the January 2005 issue of The Astronomical Journal, planetary scientist Dr. Alan Stern of the Space Science and Engineering Division at Southwest Research Institute shows Sedna could have formed far beyond the distance of
Pluto.

[Monday, January 10, 2005] Scientists using NASA satellite data found the shape of the Earth appears to be influenced by big climate events that cause changes in the mass of water stored in oceans, continents and atmosphere.

[Tuesday, January 11, 2005] Astronomers have numerous technical terms and numbering systems for describing the universe, but one type of mysterious object has yet to be classified. For now, these oddities are named for their strange appearance. They are called blobs.

[Tuesday, January 11, 2005] After reviewing data from four Earth-orbiting radar satellites, NOAA scientists
today announced they were able to measure the height of the devastating tsunami
that erupted in the Indian Ocean.

[Tuesday, January 11, 2005] In the largest galaxy survey ever, the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) confirmed the role of gravity in growing structures in the universe, using the result to precisely measure the geometry of the universe.

[Tuesday, January 11, 2005] For the first time, orbiting satellites have observed and measured a major tsunami event in open ocean, the Indian Ocean tsunami that resulted from the magnitude 9 earthquake southwest of Sumatra on December 26.

[Tuesday, January 11, 2005] A picture taken by Spitzer shows Encke along its bright debris trail, between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter as it headed away from the sun. Also visible are sharp twin jets of material coming off the nucleus.

[Wednesday, January 12, 2005] The LSST is a proposed world-class, ground-based telescope that can survey the entire visible sky every 3 nights. It will generate an awesome 30 terabytes of data per night from a 3 billion-pixel digital camera.

[Thursday, January 13, 2005] For the first time, astronomers have been able to combine the deepest optical images of the universe, obtained by the Hubble Space Telescope, with equally sharp images in the near-infrared part of the spectrum.

[Thursday, January 13, 2005] New, very high-resolution images of a dying star IRAS16342-3814 taken with the Keck II Telescope equipped with adaptive optics are helping astronomers understand the extraordinary deaths of ordinary Sun-like stars.

[Thursday, January 13, 2005] All the carbon in the Universe, including that needed for carbon-based life forms such as ourselves, has been made in the hearts of stars through what is known as the "triple alpha reaction".

[Friday, January 14, 2005] The Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope (GBT) in West Virginia, USA, a part of the global network of radio telescopes involved in tracking the Huygens Titan probe, has detected the probe's 'carrier' (tone) signal.

[Friday, January 14, 2005] Today, after its seven-year journey through the Solar System on board the Cassini spacecraft, ESA's Huygens probe has successfully descended through the atmosphere of Titan, Saturn's largest moon, and safely landed on its surface.

[Friday, January 14, 2005] "One year after President Bush visited NASA Headquarters on January 14, 2004 and proposed with the Vision for Space Exploration bold new goals for our nation's space program, I'm pleased to report that our journey to the cosmos is well underway."

[Saturday, January 15, 2005] This image was returned by ESA's Huygens probe during its successful descent to land on Titan. This is the colored view, following processing to add reflection spectra data, and gives a better indication of the actual color of the surface.

[Saturday, January 15, 2005] On 10 January, a new sunspot group emerged and was assigned NOAA Region number 720. This sunspot group has grown rapidly and currently has an area of 1540 millionths of the size of the Solar disk (about 18 times the size of the Earth).

[Sunday, January 16, 2005] While ESA slowly releases images from Huygens, full collections of Huygens imagery have already been processed and refined well beyond anything ESA has done - and you can download them yourself.

[Sunday, January 16, 2005] The geomagnetic field activity is expected to increase to major to severe storm levels within the next several hours with the arrival of the first of at least two expected CMEs generated over the past few days by Region 720.

[Monday, January 17, 2005] Intelsat, Ltd. has announced that its IS-804 satellite experienced a sudden and unexpected electrical power system anomaly on January 14, 2005, at approximately 5:32 p.m. EST that caused the total loss of the spacecraft.

[Monday, January 17, 2005] Sunspot region 720 has produced 5 large solar flares with moderate (R2) to strong (R3) radio blackouts since 15 Jan. The largest of these solar eruptions, an X3.8 on the GOES-12 x-ray sensor, occurred today at 17/0659 UTC

[Monday, January 17, 2005] An unprecedented flash observed by the space shuttle Columbia crew in 2003 over the Indian Ocean may be a new type of transient luminous event, like lightning sprites, but one that is not necessarily caused by a thunderstorm.

[Tuesday, January 18, 2005] "The committee reiterates the recommendation from its interim report
that NASA should commit to a servicing mission to the Hubble Space
Telescope that accomplishes the objectives of the originally planned SM-4
mission."

[Tuesday, January 18, 2005] One week after the successful completion of Huygens' mission to the atmosphere and surface of Titan, ESA is bringing together some of the probe's scientists to present and discuss the first results obtained from the data collected by the instruments.

[Tuesday, January 18, 2005] For decades, scientists have observed that Regulus spins much faster than the sun. But thanks to a powerful new telescopic array, astronomers now know with unprecedented clarity what that means to this massive celestial body.

[Tuesday, January 18, 2005] According to New Scientist Magazine, NASA Mars Rover Principal Investigator Steve Squyres confirmed today that Opportunity has indeed identified a metallic meteorite on the surface of Mars

[Wednesday, January 19, 2005] This Jan. 13 photograph was taken by Mt Palomar's 200-inch telescope as the Deep Impact spacecraft was at a distance of about 260,000 kilometers (163,000 miles) from Earth and moving at a speed of about 16,000 kilometers per hour (10,000 miles per hour).

[Wednesday, January 19, 2005] Although mass is the most important property of stars, it has proved very hard to measure for the lowest mass objects in the universe. Thanks to a powerful new camera, a very rare, low-mass companion has finally been photographed.

[Wednesday, January 19, 2005] Photos taken by the new high-contrast camera installed at the Very Large Telescope show a low-mass companion very close to a star. This has allowed astronomers to measure directly the mass of a young, very low mass object for the first time.

[Wednesday, January 19, 2005] Newly released imagery from three NASA spaceborne instruments/missions sheds valuable insights into the Indian Ocean tsunami that resulted from the magnitude 9 earthquake southwest of Sumatra on December 26.

[Thursday, January 20, 2005] The NASA administrator and the heads of the Russian, Japanese, European, and Canadian space agencies will meet in Montreal on January 26 to discuss their ongoing cooperation for the International Space Station.

[Thursday, January 20, 2005] Kevin Hand has just arrived in Antarctica. In the coming weeks he will travel to the Dry Valleys where he will be conducting astrobiology research. Kevin will be sending updates back to SpaceRef. This is his first update.

[Thursday, January 20, 2005] Active solar Region 720 produced a powerful X7 flare (R3 radio blackout) today at 0701 UTC. This is the largest of seven major flares observed in this large and complex sunspot cluster since it emerged as a major flare producer on 15 January.

[Friday, January 21, 2005] This image was taken on January 18, 2005 and received on Earth January 19, 2005. The camera was pointing toward Mimas, and the image was taken using the P0 and MT2 filters. This image has not been validated or calibrated.

[Saturday, January 22, 2005] New results from the Cassini mission indicate the spacecraft was pelted with
sporadic bursts of interplanetary dust as it approached Saturn last year,
according to a University of Colorado at Boulder space scientist.

»»UK Government Response to the NEO Task Force Recommendations Update January 2005

[Sunday, January 23, 2005] "The Government takes the threat from Near Earth Objects (asteroids, comets) very seriously. Lord Sainsbury set up a Task Force (TF) to consider what part the UK could play in the international effort. "

[Sunday, January 23, 2005] For the last three years evidence has been building that the impact of a comet or asteroid triggered the biggest mass extinction in Earth history, but new research from a team headed by a University of Washington scientist disputes that notion.

[Monday, January 24, 2005] The Boeing Company and the Air Force continue to make solid progress in their investigation into the premature Main Engine Cut-Off (MECO) on the Delta IV Heavy Lift Vehicle (HLV) demonstration mission that was launched Dec. 21, 2004.

[Monday, January 24, 2005] As part of NASA's recent Crew Exploration Vehicle solicitation, a glossary is included which not only defines terms but also serves as a guide to the concepts that will direct how work is done by the contractor(s) who actually build the CEV.

[Monday, January 24, 2005] A Day of Remembrance observance honoring those members of the
NASA Family who lost their lives while furthering the cause of
exploration and discovery will take place Jan. 27 at 2 p.m. from
NASA Headquarters in Washington.

[Monday, January 24, 2005] Fiscal Year 2005 funds for NASA's Outer Planets Data Analyis solicitation have been reallocated. In 2004, 142 proposals were submitted in response to this solicitation. 55 proposals were selected accounting for $4.8 million of the $5 million available.

[Tuesday, January 25, 2005] Clear evidence in a Chinese meteorite for the past presence of chlorine-36, a
short-lived radioactive isotope, lends further support to the controversial
concept that a nearby supernova blast was involved in the formation of our solar
system.

»»Study resolves doubt about origin of Earth's oldest rocks, possibility of finding traces of ancient life

[Tuesday, January 25, 2005] Experiments led by Nicolas Dauphas of the University of Chicago and Chicago's
Field Museum have validated some controversial rocks from Greenland as the
potential site for the earliest evidence of life on Earth.

[Tuesday, January 25, 2005] NASA's success largely depends on the work of its contractors—on which NASA spends about 85 percent of its annual budget. In 1990, GAO designated NASA's contract management as high risk.

[Wednesday, January 26, 2005] NASA seeks an unfunded collaboration with a commercial or non-profit organization to define, organize and execute a nationwide project-oriented competition for K-12 students in U.S. schools to select a name for the ISS Node 2 element.

[Wednesday, January 26, 2005] A study of the first double-pulsar binary system to be discovered shows that
magnetic interactions between the pulsars are strikingly similar to those
between the Sun and the Earth.

[Wednesday, January 26, 2005] The residents of the International Space Station ventured outside today for a 5-hour, 28-minute spacewalk to install a work platform, cables and robotic and scientific experiments on the exterior of the Zvezda Service Module.

[Wednesday, January 26, 2005] The center of our galaxy has been known for years to host a black hole, a 'super-massive' yet very quiet one. New observations with Integral, ESA's gamma-ray observatory, have now revealed that 350 years ago the black hole was much more active.

[Wednesday, January 26, 2005] The heads of space agencies from the United States, Russia, Japan, Europe
and Canada met in Montreal today to review and further advance International
Space Station (ISS) cooperation.

»»Message to Outer Planet Research Community by NASA Mission Directorate's Solar System Division

[Thursday, January 27, 2005] "I am writing regarding the email you received January 24 from Curt Niebur, the Outer Planets Discipline Scientist, regarding your FY05 Outer Planets Research Program funding. That email to you requires clarification."

[Thursday, January 27, 2005] An international team of scientists embarked this week on a journey to
improve modeling of global-scale air quality and climate change predictions by
conducting high quality measurements of the Arctic region's atmosphere.

[Thursday, January 27, 2005] Magnetars stars with magnetic fields a thousand million million times stronger than Earth's are formed when some of the biggest stars in the cosmos explode, says a team led by Bryan Gaensler of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.

[Thursday, January 27, 2005] NASA scientists have sent to academic researchers an unprecedented piece of the sun gathered by the Genesis spacecraft, enabling the start of studies to achieve the mission's initial science objectives.

[Friday, January 28, 2005] NASA has made substantial progress on meeting the CAIB recommendations for return to flight. The panels recommended, and the RTF TG approved, the complete closure of six recommendations and the conditional closure of one additional recommendation.

[Friday, January 28, 2005] Magnetars spit out bursts of high-energy X-rays or gamma rays. Normal
pulsars emit beams of low-energy radio waves. Only about 10 magnetars are
known, while astronomers have found more than 1500 pulsars.

[Friday, January 28, 2005] Flying near the edge of space, a NASA scientific balloon broke the flight
record for duration and distance. It soared for nearly 42 days, making three
orbits around the South Pole.

[Saturday, January 29, 2005] Spirit is healthy, but reduced sunlight has been reaching the rover through the atmosphere due to a possible dust storm. After spending 25 sols at the heat shield and nearby meteorite, Opportunity has started a long migration south.